“How was it possible… to survive?

It was not benevolent fate, not an act of divine providence either. Again and again, it was fellow prisoners who helped us, people who had been confined for years in the Nazis’ dungeons and concentration camps.”[1]

Fritz Kleinmann was born in Vienna in 1923, the third of the four children of Tini and Gustav Kleinmann. His father was an upholsterer, and the family had little money. Fritz had a happy childhood, however: he had many playmates, and someone always slipped the children something. His life changed in 1938.  a  On November 10, 1938, Fritz and his father were arrested by close friends, interrogated, and beaten. Fifteen-year-old Fritz finally was released, and his father, Gustav, was set free the next day.

Just under a year later, in September 1939, the father and son were arrested again and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp in early October. Fritz Kleinmann managed to survive only thanks to the enormous support provided by fellow inmates: for example, the doomed infirmary patients suffering from dysentery gave up half of their food rations for the children. Fritz was put in the newly established school for masons. Through the help of a fellow prisoner, he received a last message from his mother and sister Hertha, who were deported to Minsk in June 1942. When his father was scheduled to go “on a transport,” Fritz voluntarily went with him. On October 18, 1942, they were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and shortly thereafter taken to the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp.  b  Fritz Kleinmann did road-building work at first, until he went to Stolten, the Arbeitsdienstführer (SS-officer responsible for division of labor), and asked to work as a mason. From then on, he had the opportunity to work with civilians, whose rare expressions of solidarity and occasional gifts of food were helpful to him.

Fritz wanted to participate in the resistance movement and succeeded in acquiring several weapons. They were never used, however: a few weeks later, the entire camp was “evacuated.” On the death march, as the train was crossing through Austria, Fritz Kleinmann jumped over the side of the open cattle car. He bought a ticket to Vienna, but was captured by the Feldgendarmerie and put in jail. He enjoyed his stay there; he had food and a warm place to sleep. He was taken for a deserter and, as an “Aryan,” was placed in the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was a forced laborer, helping to build aircraft. There, on May 5, 1945, he was liberated by the U.S. Army. He made his way back to Vienna, where he found his father again—and the neighbors who had arrested him. Slowly but surely, he built a new existence for himself.  c 

In 1995, he published his memoirs, titled Doch der Hund will nicht krepieren…Tagebuchnotizen aus Auschwitz (But the Dog Just Won’t Kick the Bucket... Diary Comments from Auschwitz). In addition to his father’s diary, the book contains an autobiographical text by Fritz Kleinmann, an account of severe abuse but also of the great solidarity among the political prisoners, first in the Buchenwald concentration camp, and later in the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp.

(SP; transl. KL)

Literature

Gärtner, Reinhold / Kleinmann, Fritz, eds.: Doch der Hund will nicht krepieren… Tagebuchnotizen aus Auschwitz. Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995.

[1] Fritz Kleinmann: “Überleben im KZ.” In: Reinhold Gärtner / Fritz Kleinmann, eds.: Doch der Hund will nicht krepieren… Tagebuchnotizen aus Auschwitz (Thaur: Kulturverlag, 1995), pp. 34–114, here p. 34. (Translated by KL)